Are you looking to further develop your leadership style and cultivate innovation in your organisation? In a Recruitment Marketing Magazine exclusive, we interviewed Ronnie Altit, CEO for global IT Professional and Managed Services organisation, Insentra, to talk leadership, a client-centred approach, and how to cultivate an environment of trust.
Aussie-based IT services company Insentra is currently ranked number 2 in the Great Places to Work list for Sub-100-seat organisations, and with good reason! Their CEO Ronnie Altit uses the analogy of a train to describe their business.
“A steam train with rocket propulsion units on the back,” Altit clarifies. “It’s flying along the tracks and I’m the guy who’s at the front of the train, driving it. People don’t want to get on a train if they don’t know what the destination is. Nobody wants to work on a train that’s not a great, fun place to work.
“We have passengers that get on the train; they’re our clients. We have a crew on the train – all of us here at Insentra. When we get the clients on our train we want to create a certain experience. To be effective, we need to make sure everyone working on the train has the right experience. If the workers on the train are doing what they love in the company of people who love what they do, they will exude this to our passengers.”
The beginnings of Insentra grew from Ronnie’s IT background in working for a large IT systems integrator. He and his co-founders experienced two problems tech companies struggled with on a consistent basis.
“We had limited presale resources to understand what our customers wanted as they were often fully occupied. If we were able to resource the presale and were successful in winning the work, customers could take 6 months to place an order, and expect us to start in 6 days! We often couldn’t commence work for 6+ weeks. Our options were to use contractors where good ones are rare as hens teeth, to reach out to a vendor who would charge a 50% premium on our sell price making the transaction unprofitable, to make a quick hire which is nigh on impossible, or go to our competitor. None of these options were viable nor palatable.”
“It was a constant process of juggling resources. Both our customers and our team didn’t like this. I thought I was doing something wrong. So I reached out to other organisations to understand if they experienced similar problems, and they did! The purpose of Insentra is to fill this need.”
Insentra’s objective is to solve resourcing challenges that all IT reseller companies experience when delivering projects and managed services to clients. Insentra do not transact with end-users, but rather, their direct clients are IT partners that work with end-user organisations.
“We exist to augment or be the skills and capabilities for IT partners when they either run out of resources or don’t have capabilities to deliver what a client may want. It’s a unique model, and because of this, we have managed to expand our market globally in Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK.”
Insentra currently employs approximately 90 people. Their dedication to their people and clients is self-evident.
“If I focus on our people and their happiness, if I can give them the ability to grow, develop and become better versions of themselves, they’ll be able to do what they love and deliver great outcomes to clients. For the people in our business, our clients are their number one and for me, our people are my number one.”
Insentra’s culture has been intentionally cultivated and maintained. They continuously work to create a safe environment for their people to be open, honest and work with integrity. By that same token, they are clear with what they will not tolerate.
“The three words, ‘not my job’, will never be spoken here, because that refutes our fundamental values. I’m enormously passionate about building solid teams, developing people and giving them a platform to be the best they can be.”
The biggest defining factor of Insentra is not their business model, but their people and how they feel every day when they come to work. They ensure their team members feel like they’re a part of what they are accomplishing and that they’re making a difference.
Being included in the Great Places to Work list for three years in a row has set the bar high. (Insentra have achieved other impressive awards and accolades too, such as Coolest Tech Company award.)
In terms of finding the best people, Insentra seeks talent who are a cultural and values fit first and technical skills and capabilities second.
“Attitude and aptitude are everything. You can’t teach attitude, passion or engagement. We try to ensure people are passionate about what they’re doing and where they want to do it. We look for people who want to work with us as much as we want to work with them. Where you work is just as important as what you do, and the people you work with are critical.”
There is no prescriptive hiring process at Insentra. Hiring managers interview in their own style, and when Altit meets with them, he tells them what it is like working at Insentra and what they can expect in a no bullsh*t way.
“You can create a wonderful place to work, but you have to help people understand how to work there. You have to ensure what you’re saying is the experience everyone receives and is consistent with what others say. Everyone at Insentra shares the same vision. We’re fun, dynamic, quirky individuals who create an outstanding environment and have fun delivering outstanding results.”
In particular, Insentra values daring to be different.
“We embrace different. That is true diversity – diversity in thought. By creating an environment where people can be better versions of themselves, we can amaze each other, our partners and clients in everything we do. We are and always will be partner-obsessed.”
The three irrefutable values of their business are: honesty, integrity and trust. Their other four (ACES), are what they aspire to be and do: Accountability, Celebration, Efficiency, and Service Excellence. And wrapped around these is a strong sense of One Team One Dream (OTOD).
“We want to build an outstanding crew and alumni. We are building a business where the market knows people who have worked for Insentra are fantastic.”
Insentra’s talent attraction strategy means attracting outstanding people who want to work in an environment where it’s okay to make mistakes, with no fear of retribution, provided they learn from the experience.
“People won’t innovate if they fear making mistakes. We want people to question the status quo. For example, during our monthly meetings, there are two bottles of wine on display when I deliver a presentation. If I say something that’s inaccurate, people can call out the CEO and get a bottle of wine! I want them to understand that their CEO is human and can make mistakes, and encourage them to call things out.”
For Altit, leadership means setting a great example and demonstrating it’s okay to make mistakes in order to cultivate an environment of trust as a foundation for innovation.
Tip: for a great example of employer branding done right on social, check out Insentra’s LinkedIn page.
How do you foster trust in your organisation? Share a comment below.
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